


To Prove Himself

by ScribblesInTheMargins



Series: My Name is Yuri [2]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Gen, Ice Skating, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-20 15:58:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21059309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScribblesInTheMargins/pseuds/ScribblesInTheMargins
Summary: Yuri had one week to prove that he deserved to be here -- no to prove that he deserved to be training for the national team.  It was a lot to ask of a little 9 year old as small as he was, but he needed to help his family, and this was the only way.





	To Prove Himself

**Author's Note:**

> This is the second piece of the Bingo event on the 18+ on ice discord server.  
The prompt is: Canon pre-canon

This was Yuri's chance. He had exactly one week. Five days. 9 AM Monday to 3 PM on Friday. This was it, this was a skating camp taught by the Yakov Feltsman, and Yuri needed this more than he needed anything. Kids that were accepted by Yakov had a good chance of getting attention from the National team. If he could get a scholarship for training, he wouldn't be a burden on his grandfather anymore. If he could get a scholarship, he might even be able to send some money back to his grandfather. He needed this.

The first day, when he walked into the camp, he knew this would be hard. Other kids had fancy skates. He had the best ones he could afford. He'd collected bottles and spare change. He's cleaned. He'd helped neighbors. He had saved every penny he could -- skipping lunch, whatever it took. He had managed the pair of skates, white ones, covered in black polish but it was hard to tell. They were good skates though. They were sharp. Even if they were still half a size too big, an extra pair of socks and tying them tight was the best he could hope for.

He was on the ice with the other kids, separated by age, and he was the smallest, smaller than even the smallest girl. He couldn't do anything about that. What he could do was speak clear when his name was called.

"Here, sir!" He tried his best to sound bigger than he was and more confident than he was.

"OK -- Plisetsky, Waltze jump." He pointed at the ice, expecting Yuri to do exactly as told. Yuri frowned though, the other kids had been told to do toe loops. He had to own this. He had to earn his spot.

Even as he frowned, the serious look on his face, he couldn't speak up and say 'Yuri', no, Plisetsky was fine. It was his Grandfather's name, not his father's. It was the name of the man he was doing this for. He skated fast, moving across the ice, but instead of flipping to skate backward, he had to approach the waltz with a forward approach. A waltz jump wasn't enough to show that he belonged here. He was good at the waltz jump, he'd been doing those since he was six. He could do a toe-loop and a loop. He could do a salchow, and he could do a flip even. He could even do a lutz -- there was one jump he could not always do though … with a deep breath, he threw himself into the air. He drew his arms in as tight as he could, ankles tight to each other to get as much rotation as possible.

He had the speed, and he was pretty sure he had the height. He came down, his right skate touching the ground and his free leg swinging through with only a little bit of a wobble. Maybe there was more snow on the ice from where his tow pick knicked the surface, but he did it.

A single axel. He did the hardest jump of anyone in his group and his smile couldn't be hidden as he stopped to skate back over to the person running through group through this camp.

"That was not a waltz jump!" The man had his arms crossed and brows furrowed.

"It was an axel, and I landed it!" Yuri stopped where he was. Why was he being yelled at?

"I told you to do a waltz! You need to listen. You will never be a skater with an attitude like that~"

Yuri stood there, not knowing what to say to that. He wanted to argue. He wanted to say 'But I needed to prove myself'. He wanted to yell that if he could do an axel, of course, he could do a waltz. He wanted to scream about how unfair it was that he had been told to do a waltz, a little half rotation jump, when everyone else had been doing actual jumps, jumps that were graded for points on a scoring system.

"Yuri!"

A loud sounded from the boards, and both Yuri and the man in charge of his group looked over. There, only now getting onto the ice, with his signature hat in place, was Yakov Feltsman. The man was a legend in ice skating. He was a former bronze medalist in the Olympics. Three-time national champion. The man had to have a room full of medals from back when he was competing. Now though, he was one of the most successful coaches in all of ice skating -- the entire world, not just Russia.

"Yuri!" The man yelled again, and even as Yuri straightened up, not knowing what to say, the man guiding their little group answered. "Yes, Coach!"

That was when Yuri realized that once again, there was already another Yuri here. The jerk who was running his group in this camp was a Yuri. Sometimes he hated having such a common name.

"What are you doing?"

"He did that without me telling him to. He's too little to be doing that, I know. I told him just to do a waltz jump, sir!" The instructor glared down at Yuri for a moment.

As Yakov skated up to them, he looked down at Yuri, reaching out to brush some of that blond hair away. He didn't say anything about the tears of rage and disappointment. Instead, he just brushed one away with his thumb. "Well, he clearly did the axel. What is your name boy?"

"Yuri, sir. Yuri Nikolaevich Plisetsky." He tried to stand up straighter as Yuri looked up at him."

"And how old are you, Yuri?"

He couldn't help it, his lips started to move into a little bit of a smile. He had been called 'Yuri', not anything more formal or like he was in trouble. "I am nine, sir."

"You are small for your age."

"Yes, sir." There was no point in denying it. Yakov could see exactly how tall he was.

"Your skates are too big for you." Yakov was frowning, but also it was clear that he was accessing the boy in front of him.

"Yes, sir. I'll grow into them, sir." He couldn't make this man mad. Everything in life depended on this right now.

"Come with me." With that, Yakov turned to skate back to the boards

"Where are you taking Plisetsky?" The other Yuri yelled from where he was still standing with the other eight and nine-year-olds.

"To skate with the Novices I want to see what the boy can do."

Yuri's heart was racing, the other Yuri left behind as he kept up with Yakov. Soon, he was doing all the jumped he knew, a woman giving directions to all of the skaters. Even though Yuri was still the smallest, he didn't feel self-conscious about it anymore. He was the one that Yakov had pulled from the younger group. He was the Yuri that Yakov was talking to another person about over by the boards. Maybe he had managed it. Maybe, just maybe, he'd be able to make his dreams come true.


End file.
